Being Royal
by ClairePace19
Summary: The Pevensie children have to learn that being royal won't happen on its own.
1. Pillows and Pancakes

**Summary: **I sort of had this idea as I watched LWW today. I don't suppose Peter, Susan, Ed and Lucy were noble Kings and Queens at the first day.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Narnia or any of its characters. I'm just not creative enough to create own worlds and characters.

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Being royal doesn't happen on its own. It is a long process every monarch in history had to go through. It is a process of learning. In our story, we will discover how the four Pevensie children learned how to be royal.

On the morning on which our story starts, Peter Pevensie slept long, as the coronation festivities on the previous day had lasted into the early morning hours. He was the oldest of mentioned four children and therefore High King over Narnia. Peter was sound asleep and completely unaware of the fact that his younger brother, King Edmund, with whom he shared the royal bedroom, was sneaking up on him with a pillow ready.

His sleep found a quick ending as Peter was whacked over the ears with a pillow. Jerking awake, he stared bewildered at his brother, who was grinning wickedly.

"Ed!" Peter roared furiously. "What the hell are you doing?"

"I'm waking you up." answered Edmund with an innocent look. "Haven't you seen? The-" But Edmund never got to say what Peter hasn't seen, as a pillow was thrown forcefully at him.

"Oi!" Edmund yelled, and in an instant the pillow fight was raging. Soon the room was filled with swearing and muffled yells, so both young kings didn't hear the shy knocking on their bedroom door. As the door opened nonetheless, their attention was drawn to a young Faun, who looked at them in a mixture of amusement and sheepishness. It must have been a strange picture indeed the Faun saw: two kings who were sitting in one bed, the older one holding the younger one by the throat, while the younger one was about to hit the older one with a pillow on the head.

"Your majesties?" the Faun asked shyly. "The Queens – your sisters – told me to awake you. Breakfast is ready."

Peter finally released Edmund and thanked the Faun, who abandoned the room in an instant. The brothers thought they were hearing muffled laughter through the door. They looked at each other for a moment, feeling utterly stupid.

"Maybe we should leave that fight for after the breakfast?" Peter asked warily.

"I suppose." Edmund responded. He jumped off Peter's bed and made for his walk-in cupboard to get dressed. Looking at all the tunics he found there, Edmund found it really hard to choose one. Finally he decided to wear brown trousers and a green tunic, together with brown boots.

As Peter and Edmund went to breakfast, they were watched by many Narnians – whether it was because they were newly crowned kings or because the news of their pillow fight had quickly spread through Cair Paravel, they never found out. In the dining-hall they saw that their sisters Susan and Lucy were halfway through their breakfast.

"You're late!" Lucy exclaimed. "Was it so difficult to get up?"

Her brothers exchanged looks and Edmund said with dignity: "We had urgent matters to discuss. Narnia is not going to rule itself, you know."

"Had these 'urgent matters' something to do with the question who's going to have the last pancake?" Susan asked, grinning.

"You didn't eat all the pancakes!" cried Peter in shock. As no answer from Susan and Lucy came, his worst fears seemed to be confirmed. In exact the moment he tried to decide whom he should tickle first for this severe crime, a Faun entered the room to serve a plate full of pancakes.

"Lucky for you." Edmund grumbled.

The breakfast was a loud affair as Lucy tried to sneak the honey jam from Edmund and Peter accused Susan of shocking him worse than ever by pretending that all the pancakes were gone. Soon bits of egg and pancake were flying through the dinner-room and Lucy was covered in honey, as yet another Faun (Edmund silently wondered if all their servants were Fauns) entered the room.

"I was sent to say that your teacher awaits you in the library." the Faun said, doing a good job to hide his bewilderment at the sight of his kings and queens, who were covered in what seemed to be half of their breakfast.

"You're not saying we have to go to school here?!" Edmund cried in horror.


	2. Lessons and Letters

**A/N:** I got the idea of Peter's title from the Fic "Black dwarfs, blue river" by elecktrum, which is a really good fic (if you haven't read it yet, then you really should!). I don't know if he really has so many titles as I found nowhere any proof, but I liked the image of it.

**Disclaimer:** Alas, I don't own Narnia or any of its characters.

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The children walked down to the library, and were discussing about what they were going to learn. As they entered the library, they saw a rather old and intimidating Centaur standing next to a wooden table with lots of books on it. Immediately all thoughts of showing his authority and telling this teacher that he, King Edmund the Just, wasn't going to study anything, ran away from Edmund's mind.

"Your majesties," the Centaur said in a grave voice. "I am here to teach you the history of your kingdom. May you please take a seat?"

"History!" Susan exclaimed with shining eyes; everyone knew she liked this subject a lot.

The children sat down and stared at their teacher in awe. Lucy thought him being rather nice, but strict all the same. The teacher began to tell them about Narnia's history: how Aslan created Narnia and gave the beasts the ability to speak; how the White Witch first entered Narnia with the help of a Son of Adam, and how the first King and Queen of Narnia reigned. Even Lucy and Peter, who weren't really interested in history, listened attentive.

"At least the old chap tells us something interesting." Peter whispered to Edmund, who was sitting next to him. Before Edmund could do anything but nod, the Centaur had paused in his lecture and began telling both off for not paying attention. Lucy had quite a fight to prevent herself from breaking into a fit of giggles at the sight of the sheepish looks on her brothers' faces.

Not long after that the Centaur told them the lesson was over and they were to wait for their teacher in Rhetoric. Some minutes later another Centaur entered.

"Oh, I get it." Edmund said in a low voice. "Our servants are Fauns, and our teachers are Centaurs. Brilliant."

The lesson in Rhetoric was rather fun as the children had to study some speeches of the old Kings and Queens and began laughing hysterically once in a while because the speeches sounded rather silly to them. Their teacher, a young and nice Centaur who seemed to like his royal students a lot, told them that they would soon be delivering speeches like those they read.

"Oh, come off it." panted Peter through a fit of laughter. "Who wants to speak as if he had a stick up on his ass?"

The Centaur seemed to range between indignation and amusement, while Susan almost fell off her seat laughing and Edmund wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. It became clear that the children weren't going to calm down if they had to study Rhetoric for another hour, so their teacher dismissed them earlier.

As lunch was to be served later, the children had an hour free time and decided to spend it exploring their castle. Soon the quiet halls were filled with loud noises and laughter from Edmund and Lucy as Susan chased Peter through the whole castle because he had declared he would enact a law that will forbid dances and balls in Narnia (although it was clear that he had only said it to annoy Susan).

Finally, as they went to lunch, they were discussing about their afternoon; while Peter and Edmund will have to train their sword skills, Susan and Lucy will have some training in their archery. Susan was relieved as she didn't fancy sword fighting that much, but Lucy was a bit disappointed.

The afternoon went by quickly and exhausting. The boys were glad that their teacher was the Centaur Oreius with whom they had trained before the Battle of Beruna against the White Witch, and the girls had a female teacher in archery. They had great fun training outside on the fields near their castle after the hours they had spent in the library studying. After their training, the children were much too tired to talk much. They all had a bath (which was really needed) and went to dinner, which was also a rather quiet affair. The first day as Kings and Queens of Narnia had been really exhausting.

After dinner, they went to their bedrooms. Lucy and Susan were quite excited to see all their dresses and began to try them all, commenting each other's looks. Meanwhile, Peter and Edmund had a discussion about the tricks they had learned today, as there was a knock on their door.

"Come in!" Edmund called, and the Faun that had awoken them came in, carrying a piece of parchment with a wax seal on it.

"It is a letter for the High King Peter, Sire." he said, giving the piece to Peter.

"I got a letter!" Peter exclaimed agitated. "See, Edmund, a letter! From King…Loony, I suppose."

"Please, Sire", the Faun said timidly. "It's King Lune, Sire. He is the King from Archenland."

"Oh." Peter answered, frowning. "Right. Lune. Okay. You may go." he added, nodding at the Faun, who went out.

Peter unfolded the Parchment and began to read the letter out loud.

"_To Peter, High King over Narnia, sometimes called the Magnificent, Emperor of the Lone Islands, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Lion, Lord of Cair Paravel, Guardian of the Northern Marches, Master of Redhaven, Grand Duke of Terebinthia and Keeper of the Lion's Seal, from King Lune of Archenland, greeting!_"

Peter looked up, frowning again. "Do I really have so many titles?" he asked, slightly taken aback. Edmund only shrugged.

"Poor chap." Peter said. "I think I should tell him that High King is enough.

_To our greatest pleasure we have recently received news that you and your royal brother, King Edmund the Just, and royal sisters, Queen Susan the Gentle and Queen Lucy the Valiant, have defeated the White Witch at the Battle of Beruna and have been crowned to Kings and Queens over Narnia. It is our wish to attend upon your successful majesties as soonest as possible. Please send us a letter to inform us of which date will be to your majesties pleasure. With our best wishes to your majesties,_

_Lune, King of Archenland_"

The boys looked at each other rather confused. After a long silence, Edmund said quietly: "I think he wants to visit us."

"Yeah, that has occurred to me, too." Peter agreed. "And I suppose he asked for a calendar-date, didn't he?"

"I think so."

"Alright. Then we should write him back."

Peter went looking for parchment, ink and a quill. As he had found it, he sat down on his desk and stared overstrained at Edmund. "What the hell shall I write?"

"Well, I suppose you begin with a nice greeting. Maybe you can copy that what he wrote."

"If you think I'm going to write down all my titles…!"

After some discussing, many attempts and spilled ink, shattered parchments and numerous swearing, Peter and Edmund had finally written a letter to "that Loony chap" and were somehow content with it. They hadn't yet learnt how the days and months in Narnia were called, so they had to improvise a bit.

_To King Lune from Archenland, from High King Peter over Narnia, greeting!_

_It is very nice to hear from your majesty. We have agreed that a fine date for a meeting with you would be in ten days time. Please inform us if this date is to your pleasure._

_Peter, High King over Narnia_


	3. Dancing and Dresses

**Disclaimer:** Am I male? Am I british? Am I dead? Am I C.S. Lewis? No, I'm bloody not.

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„I don't want to!"

Peter was desperate. Since twenty minutes, he tried to persuade Edmund to get out of his bed. Edmund, who had his head under his pillow, refused very successfully to get up.

"I don't want to get up." he whined. "Being a king is stupid; I don't want to go to school again!"

"Ed, you're a king now, you've got responsibilities, Narnia needs you as well as we do." Peter tried to reason with his younger brother, but it seemed to be hopeless.

"I don't want to be a king!"

With a heavy sigh, Peter called a Faun. "Could you please get the queens and tell them it is a case of extreme emergency?"

Susan and Lucy were there very quickly and looked very confused as they saw that Edmund was still lying in his bed.

"Peter? What is going on?" Susan asked.

"He refuses to get out of his bed. You've always been able to get him out, so maybe you could…?"

Susan went over and tried, the same as Peter, to reason with the young king, but it didn't help at all. Finally, Lucy took matters in her hands. She took a run-up and jumped into Edmund's bed, tickling him until he finally sprang out of his bed, cursing.

"Damn it, Lucy, that was mean!"

Edmund got dressed nonetheless, but still swearing under his breath, and finally the kings and queens managed to get to breakfast. Peter told his sisters about King Lune's letter and that he will visit them in ten days. The girls were excited.

"We have to arrange a banquet!" Lucy exclaimed, hopping up and down in her seat and spraying the walls with marmalade.

"We could give a ball!" Susan said with shining eyes.

"Susan, that Loony chap only wants to visit us. I don't think he wants to dance or anything like that." Edmund grumbled over his pancakes, still being bad tempered.

But the girls kept on talking about the visit, planning everything into the tiniest detail and wondering aloud what they should wear. As breakfast was over, they went to their first lesson in court manners. There, Edmund finally lost his bad temper and had a laughing fit with Peter as they watched Lucy and Susan learning formal curtsies. They, of course, had nothing to learn, as a bow was quickly done. But their laughing found a quick ending as their teacher, a female centaur this time, announced they had to learn dancing. Peter and Edmund were horrified as they had to dance with their sisters. It was a hard forenoon for them, as Peter did his best not to tap at Susan's toes and Edmund had to stoop all the time so he could lay his hands on Lucy's hips (not that he wanted to – he had to do so and hoped they would never have dancing lessons again). Susan and Lucy, however, were happy and giggled every now and then. They enjoyed very much seeing their brothers so embarrassed. To Peter and Edmund's horror the dancing lessons continued until lunch and even the whole afternoon until evening, as their teacher said dancing was of vital importance for royals.

After dinner, the children decided to look around in the library of Cair Paravel a bit, as they hadn't seen very much in their lessons the previous day. It was a rather strange experience, as they had the feeling they had to be quiet and everyone was interested in other sections. Finally, everyone had a pile of books as they went to their bedrooms.

"I'm glad these dancing lessons are over," Peter said as he sat down on his desk, opening a book about writing royal letters.

"Huh?" Edmund asked a bit absent. He had found many books about Narnian law and was immersed in criminal law at the moment. It was really difficult to understand, but highly interesting to him.

"I just said that I'm glad these dancing lessons are over," Peter repeated, rolling his eyes.

"Oh, yeah," Edmund answered, turning a page of his old book. "Do you think there are going to be more lessons of this kind?"

"Sure. At least, Susan will force us to take more lessons. And you know we can never win."

That they couldn't win against their sisters was demonstrated only minutes after this short talk. Both boys were reading in their books, making notes on parchment every now and then, as someone knocked on the door. Without waiting for a call, Lucy walked in, showing an innocent look.

"Um, could you come to Susan's and my room for some minutes?" she asked brightly. "We just want to ask your opinion about something of great importance."

Some moments later Peter and Edmund found themselves sitting on Lucy's bed, having to look at every dress the girls possessed to decide which ones they should wear when King Lune came to visit.

"Look," Edmund said, thinking longingly of his book about Narnian law, which he had left in their room. "I really appreciate that you want to know what I think, and I'm sure Peter feels the same. But, um, honestly?"

"What is it, Ed?" Susan asked.

"Why do you want to know our opinions if every dress we like is ugly in your eyes?"


End file.
